Richard A. Hamilton - Arctic Journal Northeastland

In the 1930s scientific expeditions were dispatched all around the world from British universities. One of the less known, but nonetheless important trips, was one made by ten men to North East Land, a huge ice cap north-east of Spitsbergen, part of the Svalbard archipelago. Its an empty land, populated by bears, seals and in the spring and summer some birds. The team was there to map, observe and experiment. One of the members, and the team's physicist was Richard A. Hamilton. Later a well known scientist in 1935 he had just graduated from Oxford. His observations in Northeastland helped scientists understand the propagation of radio waves in the upper atmosphere - crucially important as radio became a global form of communication.

During the 18 month expedition several of the scientists kept personal journals and this book is Richard's carefully transcribed by his daughter Elspeth. The journal is personal. As such there is little about what Richard, and others are doing on particular days. Rather the entries focus on the details of the day - the sledge trips, cooking, conversations, feelings and frustrations. We learn about the reality of crossing a massive icecap during a spring thaw, the difficulties catching near wild sledge dogs as well as Richard's musings on the beauty of the place. There is also plenty of travel to and from observation posts (and later on Richard makes an epic journey with a fellow scientist to map a segment of the island). But very little about what he is doing when he observes Polaris, or studies the ionosphere - in fact there's more here about the personalities of the different dogs. 

It is tempting to feel frustrated by these omissions and not read on, but that mean missing what the journal is really about - the experience of being in a remarkably remote and very challenging environment. So Richard tells us of the difficulties baking bread or hunting seals, the seemingly petty factionalism that develops between members of the team and the joy they have when hearing news from home. 

Today we look back on 1935-36 and think about the Germany and the Nazis. Richard often refers to members of the expedition discussing politics or arguing about things. But the outside world barely impinges on their time. Bizarrely they manage to listen to the Boat Race on the radio, and they hear of George V's death. But of larger events - say the Spanish Civil War - Richard notes nothing. Oddly though the team does send messages and Richard refers to at least one meal spent composing a message for Mussolini, though we do not know the occasion or text of the message.

I was also struck by the reading material the scientists took with them. There are some novels, including Pickwick Papers, but oddly (to me) mostly they seem to enjoy reading accounts of other polar expeditions. Richard gets annoyed at Scott's diary from his fatal trip to the South Pole, chastising the British hero for his failure to compliment Amundsen's success.

In these Covid times, armchair travellers might well find the mundane accounts a fascinating and safe alternative to real adventure. Those who travel to the poles for modern expeditions will probably enjoy the minutiae of the expedition. It is of course, likely to be very different today. I doubt contemporary scientists shoot Reindeer to feed their sledge dogs, and then shoot the dogs before leaving for home. But I suspect that his Richard's self-effacing descriptions of learning to ski or drive a sledge will be fascinating to those who travel to the ice today.

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